


The Perfect Family

by Silex



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Married Couple, Mpreg, having a baby!, kind of cute and fluffy compared to my usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-10 05:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13495648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silex/pseuds/Silex
Summary: A young married couple is devastated by their inability to naturally have a child. Does magic count as being unnatural or is it just a miracle?





	The Perfect Family

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snickfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/gifts).



> Apparently I can write happy and cute and fluffy as long as it's significantly strange. I'm so proud of myself for not letting this one dip into my usual style. Writing it has made me feel significantly less evil than normal. Thank you snickfic for giving me the chance to write this. I hope it pleases you because I had way too much fun writing it.

Michael had held Stephanie as she cried after getting the news from her doctor. They’d been trying for a year, since the night of their wedding, to have a child, to get started on their dream of a perfect family and it seemed that part of their dream was that much farther away. The problem, they’d assumed, had been with him and that it would be a matter of ‘keep trying until it works’, but it hadn’t been him. There was something wrong with her, neither of them had really understood the medical terminology, just what it came down to. Getting pregnant would be nearly impossible for her and even if they managed, the risk of complications would be so high that it would be better off if she didn’t.

The news had been devastating for both of them, but Stephanie took it personally, as though she had somehow failed. For a week she cried about it, mourning for the loss of the child they’d likely never have and no matter how he tried, he’d been unable to comfort her.

At the end of the week it had been a simple shopping trip, just to get the essentials that turned things around in a most unexpected way. He’d gone out alone, she was still too badly shaken to go out and it didn’t help that there was a ‘Babies R’ Us’ store right across from the grocery store, which seemed almost mocking given their situation.

On the way out of the grocery store he’d noticed a little antique shop had opened in what had at one point, years ago, been a mattress store that had closed down and been empty since. Not quite ready to go back to the house and face his bereaved wife, Michael decided to see what they had in it. Stephanie had always had an interest in refinishing old furniture so getting a new project for her might be what it took to help get her mind off the bad news.

The shop wasn’t much to look at from the outside and inside it wasn’t much better.

There were the usual knickknacks and bric-a-bracs, lamps that were equal parts ornate and ugly, chests of drawers too large to fit in any normal house, a battered looking bed frame and half a dozen falling apart looking shelves lined with musty, hardback books. A sofa badly in need of reupholstering caught his eye, but the size and price tag immediately made him step back. Fixing it up would be an ambitious project alright, but at that price it was out of the question. A trio of old chairs looked more promising, especially since one of them had clearly had two of its legs replaced by ones that were slightly different from the original. The price was modest and thanks to the damage he was sure that he could haggle. They’d make for a good project.

The owner wasn’t anywhere in sight, but he could hear noises from the back room, by the sounds of it they were unpacking something large and awkward.

Just to be sure there was nothing else, nothing more viable, he made another lap of the store, stopping to admire a landscape painting in a gaudy, but chipped frame. The picture was impressive with how ordinary it was, a weathered looking farmhouse with a few cows grazing off to one side and distant forest on the other to sort of balance things out. One of the cows lowed and an old collie raised its head from a patch of tall grass.

Shaking his head he blinked and took another look at the picture. The cows were still and silent, but the collie was still there.

“Something caught your eye?” a quiet voice asked from somewhere behind him.

Turning around he found himself face to face with a young woman, her short hair, cut in an almost boyish fashion, was disheveled and there was a smudge of dust on her cheek. Clearly she was the owner, but she wasn’t at all what he expected. Her clothing was more stylish than the rest of her appearance suggested she’d be interested in, though she was wearing a large, tarnished, Celtic cross necklace on a length of braided leather. That at least said antique dealer to him.

“That’s an odd painting,” he laughed nervously, expecting her to say something about it, maybe try selling it to him.

Instead she nodded agreeable and smiled. Her teeth were slightly crooked, as though maybe she should have gotten braces as a child, but hadn’t.

“It is,” she agreed, necklace swaying as she nodded, “But it wouldn’t look good in your house and it would probably upset your wife if you got it. I’ve got some things behind the counter that might be more of what you’re interested in for a gift for her.”

“I…how did you know?” he stammered, following her to the back end of the small store.

“You’ve got that look to you,” she laughed, “Clearly not shopping for yourself and I saw the ring so I took a shot in the dark.”

“Oh,” for some reason such a mundane answer disappointed him. Something about the woman and her store, he’d expected something more unusual, some mystic woo to match the necklace she wore and what he’d imagined seeing in the painting.

She stepped behind the counter and ducked down to rummage through a number of old jewelry boxes. As she searched he looked at the other things behind the counter, displayed on high shelves. There were the standard vases and statues as well as a few more unusual objects. Some sort of large animal skull, gold chains looped between its twisting horns, a statue of an exceedingly ugly dragon that looked to be carved of oily jade, a display of rings with gaudy glass gems, and a number of necklaces that couldn’t be valuable enough to be displayed in such an eye-catching manner. If what the woman took out of the box she was looking through was anything like the jewelry he was seeing the answer would be an immediate ‘no’.

Instead she stood up, proudly holding a faded purple bag, the Crown Royal logo worn, but visible, “Here it is!”

Smiling she put it down on the counter.

He stared at the wrinkled bag and she shrugged then motioned for him to open it.

Carefully he picked it up and found that for how small whatever was inside had to be, it was heavier than he expected. Untying the fraying strings holding the mouth of the bag closed he held it over his cupped palm. A large pearl fell out. Soft pink and irregularly shaped, it was clearly a freshwater pearl, probably farmed judging by the size of it as well as the weight. Whatever bead they put in the poor oyster to seed the pearl, it must have been huge and made of lead.

“So, what do you think?” the woman smiled at him, “I know the bag’s kind of silly, but that’s what the woman I bought it from brought it in in and I didn’t have anything better. Still, I think it’s exactly what you need and I can wrap it up much nicer for you.”

“I don’t think so,” he tested the weight of the thing in his hand. It was lumpy, odd and unnervingly warm to the touch. More importantly it was just a pearl, not even put in a setting for a necklace or ring or anything.

“Take a closer look,” she urged, eyes glinting with excitement.

He humored her, half because he wondered if going along with her might give him an edge in haggling over the chairs and half because he was curious why she thought the pearl was such a great thing.

The first thing he noticed was that the luster was different than a normal pearl’s, he wasn’t sure how, he just knew it was. The second thing he saw was that the pearl was symmetrically shaped. The lumps were matched on either side and upon closer inspection he realized that there was a sort of shape to it. Two round lumps at the top, gentle curves down, little squiggly lines marking out some sort of shape, matched on front and back. Little bumps to the bottom…

All at once it came into focus, the pearl was shaped like two babies, a boy and a girl, curled up face to face. The details were so clear despite their small size that he could count the fingers of the girl, curled up under her chin and the boy’s lips were pursed as he sucked his thumb.

“See it now?” the store owner whispered, “Aren’t they amazing?”

“Yes,” he had to agree, but it was also exactly what he wasn’t going to get, not when it would remind Stephanie of the awful news, “It’s not what I’m here for though. You’ve got a set of three chairs, one of them is –”

“Poorly repaired,” the woman finished, “They’re twenty-five dollars each, sixty for the set.”

“How about fifty for the three of them since the repairs are so poor?” he countered.

“Normally I don’t haggle,” her expression grew thoughtful, “But you are getting them as a gift and…hmm… You know what, since you’re my first customer today I’ll let you have them for fifty, and I’ll give you the pearl as a gift for your wife. I think she needs it.”

Tempting as it was to tell her to keep the pearl, he wasn’t going to turn down the deal on the chairs so he paid for them and let her help him load them into the car. When he tried to leave without the pearl she handed it to him and smiled.

He slipped the thing into his pocket where he could feel its warmth the whole way home, unpacked the groceries, showed Stephanie the chairs and forgot all about it when she brightened up at the sight of them and began clearing out a space in the garage to start working on them.

It wasn’t until he was getting undressed that night that he remembered the pearl when it fell out of his pocket and landed heavily on the floor. He picked it up before Stephanie could see it and ask about it, hiding it under his pillow until he could think of a better place to keep it.

That night he and Stephanie made love for the first time since speaking with the doctor. Careful and nervous, it was a reassurance for both of them, that they weren’t going to let one bit of tragic news ruin everything.

Eventually things settled into their new normal and Michael forgot about the pearl or how strange the antique store owner had seemed and life went on.

 

\---

 

Several weeks later Michael woke up feeling absolutely horrible. Trying not to wake Stephanie up he rushed to the bathroom and spent the next half hour gagging, wondering what it was that had made him so ill. They’d ordered pizza last night, which seemed a likely culprit. He’d had his usual favorite toppings, sausage, peppers and onions, though something had seemed a little off about it. The smell and strong flavors had left his stomach feeling a little unsettled and the taste simply hadn’t been right. Stephanie had insisted that it tasted fine to her and she had found a single olive on the piece he’d been eating, which could have explained things. He hated everything about olives, from their gray-black color to their briny taste, but one olive wasn’t enough to make him this sick. The cheese had probably been spoiled or the sausage had been left out too long.

Yes that was probably it. Just thinking about how greasy it had been was enough to make him start gagging even harder.

“Are you okay?”

He looked up and saw Stephanie standing at the door as he knelt by the toilet.

“I’m fine,” he said, spitting to try and get the taste out of his mouth, “But that awful pizza gave me food poisoning.”

“I hope not,” she said, going pale, “I don’t want to get sick too. Maybe it’s just a stomach bug.”

“Just make me some tea and buttered toast,” he grimaced, “Maybe getting something in my stomach will help.”

It did too. After eating and drinking he felt a little better. He spent the rest of the day sitting around the house, resting and hoping that whatever it was would pass and it did seem that he was getting better. By the end of the day he felt fine and was sure that he’d been right.

Then the next morning it happened again, just as bad and he had to admit that it probably was a stomach bug and not the pizza.

When it continued for a week he decided that it was the flu and when it didn’t go away on its own after another week he called and made an appointment with his doctor. Unfortunately, since it was flu season, the appointment book was packed and unless someone canceled he’d need to wait a whole month. A whole miserable month as it turned out.

The flu, or whatever it was, never went away. Worse in the mornings and lingering for about half the day, he learned to live with it, adjusting his routine and coping as best as he was able. Quickly he figured out that rich, fatty foods or anything with a strong smell made it worse, to the point where the thought of bacon and eggs was enough to send him running back to the bathroom. Instead he settled for oatmeal and tea for breakfast, though fruit and yogurt didn’t hurt his stomach either. It was the best that he could do and as his doctor’s appointment drew nearer he actually started feeling a little better, putting back on some of the weight that he’d lost from his long bout of the flu, which was what he’d decided that he had. In fact, when he received the call reminding him of the appointment he was feeling better enough that he decided to cancel it, much to Stephanie’s frustration. He understood that she was worried about him, but he was getting better and going to the doctor’s at this point, when he had things under control, was a waste of time and money.

 

\---

 

On the day that the appointment would have been Stephanie watched him as he was getting ready for work, a bemused smile on her face, “I wish you didn’t insist on toughing things out.”

“Don’t worry, he reassured, putting on his shirt and tucking it in, “I really am feeling better. I think I just wasn’t eating right and now that I’m being more careful I’ll be fine.”

He turned to show her his profile and prove that he’d regained the weight that he’d lost.

Stephanie frowned and walked over to him, putting a hand on his stomach, “I hope you’re right. It’s just that after…”

“Don’t worry,” he sighed. That was part of the reason he hadn’t wanted to go to the doctor, the association with bad news was still there and not going felt like the best way to avoid it. There was no reason to think that it would be more bad news, not when he was feeling mostly better, but the fear was still there and it wasn’t something he wanted to have to face, “Everything’s going to be fine. Now could you hand me my belt?”

He’d had to tighten it a notch two weeks ago, but now he had it back to where it had been before. Oddly enough, it felt a little tight that way. Maybe his stomach was still a little sensitive and the pressure of it against him was bothering him, not that he was going to mention that. There was no reason to worry, none at all.

Especially not when there were happier things to think about. The other day Stephanie had suggested that maybe they shouldn’t give up on having a child. She hadn’t said it outright, but the implication was there, that maybe they consider adopting. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that since on some level the idea of having a child of his own appealed to him, but that wasn’t a choice no matter how much he wanted it to be one.

Finishing getting dressed, he kissed Stephanie goodbye and headed to work.

 

\---

 

“I told you everything was fine,” he smiled, kissing Stephanie as she leaned against the shower wall.

“You’re right,” she laughed when he broke the kiss, “You are looking good.”

“I get more handsome every day, you know that,” he joked, pressing against her, “Eating right, working out.”

Except working out hadn’t been working for him. He’d put on all the weight he’d lost while sick and then some. Already he’d had to loosen his belt another notch and even then it still felt a little tight. Add that to the fact that his chest felt tender and he’d developed a little padding there as well, and he was a little worried that he might need to go on a diet. The thing was, other than that he felt great. He looked great too, at least according to Stephanie. She’d described it as radiating good health, whatever that was supposed to mean, then run her fingers through his hair and invited him into the shower with her.

Eagerly he’d taken advantage of the offer and though they ended up with their hands all over each other, very little had been accomplished in the way of actual washing, at least so far. She had started soaping up her chest and he was making sure that every inch of it was covered in suds because that made it all the more fun for him to run his hands back and forth over her breasts, playing and teasing and making her squirm.

Alternating between gasps and giggles, she threw her arms around him, sliding against his body, causing him to wince slightly when she pressed too hard against him. With the hot water beating against it his chest was especially sensitive and even that little bit of pressure was uncomfortable, not that Stephanie noticed. She was too busy running her hands over him now, lower and lower, dropping to her knees and then it was his turn to gasp and lean back against the shower wall.

There was nothing to worry about, nothing at all.

 

\---

 

He was gaining weight. There was no denying it now and no ignoring it. He’d had to loosen his belt two more notches and when he tucked in his shirt there was a visible bump. One of his coworkers had even made a joke about it, suggested that he needed to ease up on the partying and drinking. Because that was what it looked like, a beer gut. Except he’d stopped drinking months ago. Beer didn’t taste good to him anymore, nor did most alcohols for that matter, just like fried and greasy foods still made him a bit queasy from time to time, though that was likely from the memory of having been sick for so long. Hell, partying didn’t appeal to him anymore. He was perfectly content to spend the evening cuddled up on the sofa with Stephanie, talking about their plans for the future, like they were doing tonight. The possibility of adopting was something that she’d brought up more than once and as much as he wanted a child he still wasn’t too keen on the idea. If they adopted they’d likely end up with a toddler or older and for whatever reason he was caught up with the idea of a baby, an actual little baby, new born, pink and perfect.

A baby, their baby.

His baby.

That was the idea that kept coming to him, not just any baby, but his baby.

It wasn’t some selfish thing, or maybe it was, he wasn’t really sure, just that it was something he felt strongly about.

“What were you thinking?” Stephanie’s question brought him back to the here and now.

“Nothing,” he said quickly, then corrected himself, “Or having a baby.”

“That’s not nothing,” she rested her head on his shoulder, “But it is something to think about. Adoption is hard. It can take a long time for everything to go through and then…”

She trailed off.

He knew that she’d been doing research on the matter and it seemed like a long, daunting process, setup for more disappointment at the worst and a great deal of waiting and helplessly hoping at best. The payoff would be worth it in the end, the family that they’d dreamed of, but it would be so much work. He was ready for it, she seemed to be ready for it, but he still had his misgivings.

The selfish, petty desire for a child that was his was there and it grew stronger by the day, even though he knew that was impossible.

A twinge shot through his stomach and he shifted his weight. They were happening more and more lately. Not uncomfortable or distressing, just noticeable, he’d assumed they were gas at first and that they’d pass, but now they were another thing to live with, like his growing stomach. Maybe the two were connected in some way.

Stephanie hadn’t said anything about his weight gain, though he’d caught her looking at him a few times, staring at his stomach with a concerned expression.

Concerned, or maybe thoughtful.

He’d considered saying something about it, but hadn’t, at least not yet.

 

\---

 

The twinges had gotten worse. They weren’t exactly painful, or uncomfortable, but they happened often enough that there were times when they woke him up at night. After one particularly severe bout that kept him up for over an hour he wondered if he should go to a doctor about it, just to get an answer.

The matter was decided for him the next day while he was sitting on the sofa with Stephanie, discussing what they were going to do for dinner that night. He’d been trying to ignore a series of especially strong twinges when Stephanie reached past him to get the remote and turn the TV on. By chance her hand brushed against his stomach at the exact time one of the twinges happened.

She dropped the remote and froze.

“It’s nothing, really,” he tried to reassure, “Probably just gas.”

In an instant both her hands were on his stomach, her eyes growing wider by the second. “I don’t think…”

“Don’t worry,” he shifted position and tried to move her hands off his stomach, feeling suddenly sensitive about how noticeable his weight gain had gotten and these new problems, “Please, I’ll go to urgent care tomorrow.”

“All the little things…” she muttered softly, fearfully, “I thought I was imagining things. Or going crazy. It was a bad few months so I…”

Now he was getting worried too, “What do you think it is? Something bad?”

Had toughing it out been a mistake? Should he have gone into that appointment months ago?

“Nothing bad,” she laughed nervously, “Just, would you do something to humor me? Make me feel better about this, that I’m not crazy. Because what I’m thinking _is_ crazy.”

“What?” he asked, but she was already off the sofa and running to the upstairs bathroom, “What?”

She came back holding an object that took him a moment to recognize despite how naggingly familiar it was.

An at home pregnancy test.

“What?” he repeated for the third time, “Do you think you’re pregnant or something?”

“Or something,” she said quietly, nervously shifting the wrapped test wand from hand to hand, “Just do it to humor me, please.”

Then she passed it to him.

He stared at the package in his hand as though it were a spider that might jump up and bite him, “Why?”

“Just do it, for me.”

There was something in her tone, simultaneous hope and fear, that made him humor her.

He went to the bathroom, opened the package and read over the instructions, which were surprisingly detailed for such a simple little thing.

Less than five minutes later he understood why. Somehow he’d managed to do it wrong and get a positive result. Rereading the instructions gave no clue as to what had happened and the thing wasn’t expired. That left him with only one explanation.

“Stephanie!” he shouted, throwing the test wand into the trash, a novelty, prank that always gave a positive result, “This isn’t funny. After what we’ve gone through…”

She was standing in the hall, pale and shaken, “Don’t yell. I’m crazy, right? Please tell me I’m crazy.”

All anger left him, replaced by a sense of shock so bone deep that he thought his legs might give out. What he’d seen was impossible, but…

He staggered back until his back hit the wall, then he slid down it until he was sitting on the floor, “We’re both crazy.”

He nodded towards the bathroom.

Eyes glistening with tears she went to the bathroom, fished the test wand out of the garbage and stared at it.

“How?” she stared at him, looking for an answer to the impossible.

“I…” he stared down at his swollen stomach as though seeing it for the first time. There was no way it could be real, except now that he thought back everything fell into place far too well. It had been morning sickness, not the flu. Food cravings and a change in appetite had certainly happened, just like in the books on motherhood that Stephanie had made him read over with her, in preparation for the family they wanted to have. The family that should have been impossible. Except…

There was more, the tenderness and slight swelling around his chest, how healthy he’d looked and felt despite it all – the glow of motherhood. Now the twinges, they weren’t gas, he was feeling the baby quicken. And the timing of it all lined up too well too.

He rested his hands on his stomach, felt the movement of the baby kicking.

How?

His mind wandered back to the antique store, the strange pearl that the owner had insisted he take to give to Stephanie, the pearl he had promptly hidden away and forgotten.

It was crazy, they were crazy to think that this was happening.

Stephanie walked uncertainly over to him, sat down with him on the floor and reached out, her hand hovering inches over his stomach.

He wanted to laugh, to cry, to scream.

Instead he reached out and took her hand tightly in both of his, “Whatever this is, we’ll figure it out and…”

He brought her hand down to rest on his stomach.

There was another twinge.

The baby kicking.

His baby kicking.

No, _their_ baby kicking.

Why did that thought feel so right, so natural?

He was a man, men weren’t supposed to get pregnant, or even think about that sort of thing. The idea should have been laughable or terrifying, but it wasn’t. Because knowing and having an answer to what had been happening to him was a relief. And the nature of the answer…

“We’ll go to the doctor tomorrow,” he said at last, “And we won’t worry about it until we know if there’s anything to worry about.”

They spent the rest of the evening in awkward silence, each keeping their thoughts to themselves. Through it all Stephanie never left his side, often reaching out to carefully put her hand on his stomach, rub the round swell of it with an awed expression. He didn’t try to stop her. Hell, he was probably encouraging it after a while because the look she gave him each time there was a kick…

It shocked him how easily he’d come to think of the twinges as kicks, to accept the fact that he was pregnant, that he wanted to be pregnant.

That was the crazy part, that he actually wanted to be pregnant and the more he thought about it, the more excited he was about it. All the things he and Stephanie had talked about doing, making the guest bedroom into a nursery, picking out names and going shopping for baby clothing and all the other necessities of parenthood together, they were going to be an option. They were going to get the perfect family that they’d always dreamed of. True, they’d always imagined that Stephanie would be the one having the baby, but that was a small detail, one that seemed less and less important the more he thought about it.

They were going to be parents.

That was what he fell asleep thinking about, that he was going to be a father.

Arms wrapped around Stephanie, her back pressed to his stomach, he fell asleep smiling at the thought.

 

\---

 

The next day they went to the clinic, the test was repeated there by professionals and the results were the same, much to the silent puzzlement of the doctors there. He couldn’t imagine what they were thinking or what they wanted to say, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that when Stephanie threw her arms around him and started crying the tears were happy ones.

Two days later there was another doctor appointment, this time an ultrasound proved what they already knew, but with a surprise.

Twins.

A boy and a girl.

More happy tears, this time from him as well.

As they left the doctors’ office Stephanie took his hand in hers, “This is crazy.”

“But it’s real,” he said, resting his free hand on his stomach, marveling at the new life, no – lives, that he carried inside himself. Twins. It _was_ crazy and impossible, but it _was_ happening and he _wasn’t_ going to question it, “We’re going to be parents.”

“I know!” Stephanie beamed and threw her arms around him. Then her expression grew serious, “There’s a lot we’re going to need to do.”

“I know, he hugged her tightly, kissed her on the forehead, “But we’ll do it together.”

Because they’d gotten through the worst imaginable news together and while this was strange enough to be unimaginable, it was hardly bad news at all.

They were going to be parents!


End file.
